April 12, 2007

Mainstage depicts effort to relocate abandoned, abused children

Northwestern will present Aurand Harris’ family play “The Orphan Train” this spring.

Harris’ play examines the efforts of Charles Loring Brace — the founder of the Children’s Aid Society and the father of the modern foster home movement — to rescue abandoned, abused and orphaned children from the streets and slums of New York. Brace’s solution was to send them by rail from the urban Northeast to farm families in the West and Midwest. It is estimated that between 1854 and 1929, more than 250,000 children were relocated.

The Mainstage production of “The Orphan Train” will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday, April 13; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, April 14, and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 15, at the Josephine Louis Theatre. It also will tour nine Chicago, Evanston and Wilmette elementary and middle schools this spring.

“The Orphan Train” will be directed by Northwestern’s Rives Collins, associate professor of theatre and director of the University’s Children’s Theatre Program.

Collins is largely responsible for inspiring Northwestern alumnus Aurand Harris to write it.

Years ago, Collins read a Smithsonian Magazine article about the true stories of orphaned children in America in the 1890s and saw photographs by Jacob Riis documenting their the plight. In the early 1990s, Collins had his Northwestern creative drama class students explore Brace’s efforts to find new homes across the country for parentless children.

“As we worked, we realized these stories were filled with drama about children at a crossroads,” said Collins. “All great drama revolves around crossroads — the point when characters lives will change forever.”

Collins sent the material he and his students had gathered to Aurand Harris — one of the most produced playwrights for young audiences in the United States. The result was “The Orphan Train,” which has become one of Harris’ most revered plays. (Harris died in 1996).

For tickets, call the Theatre and Interpretation Center Box Office at (847) 491-7282 or go to www.tic.northwestern.edu/tickets.html.